Abstract:

Teaching subjects on any level of education is a process of passing knowledge from teacher to students. The result of this process is very much dependent on teacher's ability to pass his knowledge in an understandable and easy to remember form. Using examples, case studies, allegories or acronyms is a way of teaching appreciated by students. In management theories and pratice, including project management, a concept of so called SMART goals is widely used. The word SMART is an acronym of adjectives describing the characterisitcs of well defined goal. The individual letrers of the acronym stand for (S) specific, (M) measurable, (A) achievable or accepted, (R) realistic, and (T) timebound. As the letters create a word "smart", they are easier to remember for students.

Project management is a type of management sciences which is taugh at universities around the world. It is usually presented in a traditional form when students need to remember several so called knowledge areas (PMBoK, 2013).

This paper presents an alternative way of teaching project management by using an approach folowing an extended acronym SMART GIRL. While the first part of the acronym stands for the same words as in the SMART goal concept, the second part represents words (G) goals, (I) information, (R) resources, and (L) luck. When teaching project management this sequence of words not only makes logical sense but also is easy to remember thanks to the acronym.
The paper briefly describes this concept and offers an alternative approach to teaching project management.

Keywords:

Project management, teaching, acronym, smart girl.